'Stop-Loss' all over the map

Wednesday

Mar 26, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 26, 2008 at 4:41 AM

Had your fill of films about Iraq? Recent box office returns suggest that you have. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from churning out these granola-laced bits of pacifism like cookies at Keebler. The latest crunchy morsel comes from the surprisingly p.c. p.c. of Kimberly Peirce, a filmmaker who spared no quarter indicting hate crimes in “Boys Don’t Cry,” but disappointingly chooses a less emphatic tact with “Stop-Loss.”

Al Alexander

Had your fill of films about Iraq? Recent box office returns suggest that you have. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from churning out these granola-laced bits of pacifism like cookies at Keebler.

The latest crunchy morsel comes from the surprisingly p.c. p.c. of Kimberly Peirce, a filmmaker who spared no quarter indicting hate crimes in “Boys Don’t Cry,” but disappointingly chooses a less emphatic tact with “Stop-Loss.”

It’s literally all over the map, as Peirce struggles to tell the tale of an Iraq veteran whose re-entry to civilian life is put on hold by a little-known clause called stop-loss that allows the military to retain soldiers past their enlistment during wartime.

Peirce’s stance is that Iraq has never been and never will be an officially declared war, thus making the policy both illegal and immoral. I’m sure a lot of people will agree, especially after they see the hurt and dejection on the ready-for-GQ face of Ryan Phillippe’s Sgt. Brandon King after the good-ol’-Texan learns he’s earned a third all-expenses-paid trip to Mess-opotamia.

What they won’t care about is what he decides to do about it, and that’s grab his best friend’s fiancée (the wooden Aussie Abbie Cornish) and hit the road for Washington, D.C., to plead his case to a congressman who once made an idle promise to help him if he ever had a problem.

Of course, that was before the sergeant, a decorated hero, went AWOL from both the service and his Army buddies, each of whom has been conveniently assigned a war-related malady: post traumatic stress disorder for the brooding deep thinker Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), alcoholism for the burly party boy Steve (Channing Tatum), and debilitating injuries for the sweet and compassionate Rico (Victor Rasuk).

A better film would probably have explored their issues as vigorously as it does Brandon’s minor-by-comparison woes. But in a less-polished effort like this one, they’re little more than a Greek chorus cheering their buddy along as he chooses to run instead of fight.

They also allow Peirce to make like a rapper (apropos considering this is an MTV production), sampling just about every issue from every war movie ever made, from “Best Years of Our Lives” and “Born on the Fourth of July” to “Coming Home” and “The Deer Hunter.”

If only “Stop-Loss” was half as good as those.

I found myself fighting not to laugh as my interest ebbed and the clichés and implausibilities mounted.

It’s shocking to think a past Oscar nominee could be responsible for something this scatterbrained in scope and execution. Peirce even manages to reduce fine actors like Gordon-Levitt, Ciaran Hinds (miscast as Brandon’s dim-witted father) and Timothy Olyphant (unconvincingly blustery as Brandon’s CO) to amateurish levels.

Most glaring, though, is her inability to fashion a cohesive story populated with rational-thinking characters. Why, for example, would Steve’s fiancée take it on the lam with Brandon? Granted her betrothed is both a drunk and a physical abuser, but is that an excuse to run off with the guy’s best buddy?

It might have made sense if Brandon and Cornish’s Michele shared some sort of attraction, but they don’t. Heck, they rarely even speak to one another as they travel thousands of miles cross-country with the law constantly breathing down their necks.

That’s not nearly as perplexing as Peirce’s point. What’s she trying to say? She takes no sides, offers no insights.

Even the film’s big-bang opening, which finds the boys ambushed and under heavy fire by insurgent Iraqis, has a staged, Hollywood flavor to it. But it’s not nearly as phony as what happens stateside in their tiny Texas town once they commence prowlin’, fightin’ and shootin’ out their aggressions.

It smacks of exploitation, and worse, stereotyping. Sad, because that was hardly Peirce’s intent in a film conceived to honor her brother who joined the Army in the wake of 9-11 and served in Iraq until being wounded in combat.

You can sense her passion for the subject, too. But like someone else we know, her grand plan lacks the vision to succeed.